Mr. Robot, Evil Corp, and Karl Polanyi
According to Kurtuluş Gemici, the financial crisis of the late 2000s was a “Polanyi moment – the realization that markets, when left to their own devices, are destructive to social relations and fabric.”[1] Karl Polanyi believed there was a “double movement” process related to capitalism — markets expand and then society steps in to regulate the markets.[2] Without societal intervention, a market society implodes.
So…what are markets, and what are the dangers? Economist Samuel Gregg writes, “Though often portrayed in very impersonal terms, the market is no more than the ongoing interaction of freely chosen material exchanges between human beings.”[3] If these “freely chosen material exchanges” are done in self-interest, however, according to Polanyi, society has a problem. For instance, in The Great Transformation Polanyi argued that the “true criticism of market society is not that it was based on economics,” rather, “its economy was based on self-interest.”[4] He believed Adam Smith miscalculated humanity’s ability, or lack thereof, to barter altruistically. Even more problematically, self-interest-seeking market capitalists would resist regulation because such restriction would be seen “as if it were directed solely against themselves.”[5] The privileged would never go for a loss of “leisure and security.”[6] In Polanyi’s market society, the rich get richer, scaling their riches at the cost of everyone and everything. Something must, and inevitably will, be done.
In steps Mr. Robot’s Fsociety.
Less than 10 years following the economic drama of 2007-2008, film producer Sam Esmail created and produced “Mr. Robot,” a series that ran four seasons on the USA network from 2015 – 2019. Esmail’s protagonist, Elliot Alderson, was played by Rami Malek (Oppenheimer, Bohemian Rhapsody, No Time to Die). If you are a Rami Malek fan, this was by far Mr. Malek at his best. AND, if you like dark, psychological thrillers that have great ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, well…this is Mr. Robot.
The show benefitted from the Occupy Wall Street moment (2011) still fresh in some people’s minds, but it was so much more. In the series, Elliot struggles with clinical depression, social anxiety, and dissociative identity disorder (this became a major theme in the series). He also happens to be a brilliant computer hacker and corporate software engineer who works with a cybersecurity system called All Safe.
(Spoiler alert, sort of) Elliott leads a small ad hoc hacker collective called Fsociety to initiate the collapse of the mega multinational conglomerate E-Corp (also referred to as “Evil” Corp in Elliott’s mind), a client of All Safe. E-corp, an e-commerce company that, among its many businesses, maintained most of the world’s consumer debt. It was the sort of mega-conglomerate which, in the series, benefitted the “1% of the 1%” the most. All the while, nefarious actors are at work inside and outside of the organization and mostly in the shadows, vying for control. Esmail’s narrative depicts a modern day dystopia where, in the spirit of Polanyi’s beliefs, unregulated free enterprise, left to itself, ultimately gives birth to an endeavor like the evil “E-corp” (ironically, or intentionally, Sam Esmail’s real-life own production company is called “Esmail Corp”…E corp?). Fsociety creates chaos and global panic as they play the part of vigilantes, operating outside the law to erase the world’s debt through a computer hack targeting E(vil)-corp.
In a way, the fictitious Fsociety is Polanyi’s inevitable arm of society protecting “itself against the perils inherent in a self-regulating market system”[7], though I would imagine Polanyi’s corrective measures to be state-initiated, rather than catalyzed by hacker collectives. Polanyi believed “governments (not vigilantes) constantly have to intervene to protect society from the effects of the market and to protect the SRM (self-regulating market) itself.”[8] For Polanyi, twentieth century problems, which followed the collapse of nineteenth century civilization, “lay in the laws governing market economy.”[9]
Polanyi certainly had his detractors. For example, economist Gregory Clark[10] believed Polanyi was wrong about capitalism’s history. Clark argued “that the free market was not an invention of the eighteenth century but was (instead) one of mankind’s oldest ‘social institutions.’”[11] Others believe Polayni to be one of the West’s and capitalism’s greatest critics. At the same time Jason Clark asserts the possibility that Polanyi “was optimistic for the future of free markets if they were able to attend to the problems he diagnosed. He believed that attention to these issues was possible by recognising the gap between liberal SRMs on the one hand, and state control of markets through fascism and socialism on the other.”[12]
Jason Clark also asks great questions about problems that seem embedded in human economic systems.
For example, Clark asks, “can Evangelical Christianity rediscover its ability as a countermovement in differentiation from secular hopes?” Clark writes about how Evangelicalism has helped to create necessary responses to some of the “pathologies” associated with self-regulated markets (responses that included “hospices, welfare, education, etc.”).[13] He then asks, “Can Evangelism repeat that move and countermove today, and what is it currently doing with regard to the late-capitalist markets? Where are its ongoing ‘islands of social care’”?[14]
For people displaced from their places of origin, whether by choice, force, or circumstance, these islands of social care (local Christian communities) should be places where ministries of listening, mercy, and hospitality are in abundance.
For the fictional Elliot Alderson in Mr. Robot, it was the underground Fsociety (at least in Season 1) that provided a place of “belonging”…a community or network for Elliot to leverage his talents to do what he and they believed needed to be done for the common good. It was in that community where he wrestled with questions around his identity, his purpose, and his relationship to the greater culture around him.
In our case, what might the body of Christ do to provide connection and equipping among redeemed image-bearers throughout the world, in all sorts of socio-political/economic/cultural contexts? How should Christians engage with one another and among their neighbors in a diversity of settings, whether the markets are flourishing or the economy is crumbling? These are questions to work out among local networks of Christians.
[1] Clark, Jason Paul, “Evangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship” (2018). Faculty Publications – Portland Seminary. 132. https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/gfes/132, 132, quoting Gemici, “Beyond the Minsky and Polanyi Moments, 15-43.
[2] Clark, “Evangelicalism and Capitalism,” [referencing Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, 2nd ed. (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2001), 79-80], 128.
[3] Gregg, Samuel, Economic Thinking for the Theologically Minded, Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2001, 34.
[4] Polanyi, Karl, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001), Kindle version, page 257 of 318.
[5] Ibid., 262 of 318.
[6] Ibid., 263 of 318.
[7] Clark, “Evangelicalism and Capitalism,” [quoting Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, 2nd ed. (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2001), 79-80], 128-129.
[8] Clark, “Evangelism and Capitalism,” 128.
[9] Polanyi, The Great Transformation, Kindle version, 3 of 318.
[10] Jason Clark unpacks Gregory Clark’s perspective on page 131 in “Evangelicalism and Capitalism.”
[11] Ibid., 131.
[12] Ibid., 134.
[13] Ibid., 148.
[14] Ibid., 148.
About the Author
Travis Vaughn
6 responses to “Mr. Robot, Evil Corp, and Karl Polanyi”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hey Travis, first of all, you explained Polanyi and Clark in a way that I (who have yet to read either) could understand, so thank you! Your post gave me hope that I might enjoy the reading! Okay, enjoy is probably too strong of a word, but I am interested!
I’m the last sentence if your post you write, “These are questions to work out among local networks of Christians.” I appreciate that you contextualize the Christian response. It’s too easy to declare something like, “All Christians should…”, at least, I find myself easily making such declarations, but really, our responses, actions, the way we equip and work and care need to be contextualized to our community.
Thanks, Kally. I read Clark’s paper first, and his take on Polanyi provided a good framework that certainly helped with an inspectional reading of the Great Transformation. If you can, I’d read Clark first.
The slow, highly relational nature of ministries of mercy, care, hospitality, listening, helping congregants to navigate their local socio-economic contexts…requires the hard work of contextualization. Different communities have different challenges that require Christians to speak / act in ways that demonstrate a counter narrative… signposts that point to the kingdom of God in the midst of the narratives around them. Our Western culture is a challenging one…contextualization takes time and there are so many things in our cultural context that compete for that time (and attention).
Great post. I agree, Polanyi was probably not thinking of hacker collectives to regulate the economic system, especially given that he died in 1964!
I really appreciate your focus on islands of social care. In many ways the Church, and individual local churches, have provided those. And may we continue to do so – what a beautiful testimony to self-sacrificial love if we can meet the needs of our communities while asking nothing in return.
Thanks, Kim. Yes, I’m quite sure Polanyi probably couldn’t have imagined the market collapsing through a single computer virus/malware from a small group of geeky vigilantes operating out of an abandoned building.
I really would like to do some more research on Jason’s “islands of social care,” as I think there is potentially a connection to my NPO project. I would imagine these Christian communities that he highlighted have all sorts of network dynamics in play…weak – strong ties comparisons included. I thought of Rodney Stark’s “The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries.” Social / familial networks weighed heavily in his work. I wonder if what these “islands of social care” look like (or could like) in the midst of the socio-political/cultural/economic context of France?
To add to this discussion-
It seems like the term “islands of social care” is especially powerful because the island analogy infers that the care is occurring in a specific/limited context which regards the specific needs of a unique group- rather than a cookie-cutter approach which can be so appealing. It also infers a relational component to how we respond to those around us that you have outlined in your post.
Travis,
I agree with Kally. You explained Polanyi very well. I appreciate your post and the connections that you made to Dr. Clark’s dissertation. Your conclusion was brilliantly written.
You say, “These are questions to work out among local networks of Christians.”, what are your thoughts on the best way to achieve this?